Attorney general Dominic Grieve has threatened legal action against individuals posting new images of Venables online.

Police have now served the three websites with an injunction banning the "purported identification" of both Venables and Robert Thompson - the other person involved in Bulger's killing in February 1993 - reports The Guardian.

The new image of Venables is said to have begun circulating on February 14.

Sinéad McSweeney, Twitter's director of public policy in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, commented that it is important "people increasingly understand that online is no different to offline - what is illegal offline is illegal online".

At the time, 10-year-olds Venables and Thompson were the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history.